Tiah-Mai Ayton has made a spectacular entrance into professional boxing, and the 19-year-old bantamweight will be looking to round out 2025 in style when she takes on Brazil’s Ana Karla Vaz De Moraes on December 17.
DAZN will broadcast the action from Indigo at O2 in London.
Ayton (3-0, 3 KOs) isn’t the type of character to leave the gym and spend her afternoons studying old fights or great fighters for tips and tricks. Neither is she likely to cancel plans and spend a Saturday night glued to the television watching a live show on a Saturday night.
Ayton is one of the hottest prospects in boxing, but once the Bristolian takes off her hand wraps or kicks off her running shoes she switches off.
“I like watching Katie Taylor. That's it, really, just Katie. I don't really watch a lot of boxing but I've watched Katie Taylor's fights,” Ayton told The Ring.
“Unless it’s the big ones, like,
Eubank and Benn, I’ll watch that, but I never watch just boxing.
“I don't like any sports, really. I just happen to be good at boxing but I feel like because I do it all the time, I don't want to watch it. So when I come home, I get to get away from it.
“I don't watch any sports, that's why I just watch films and stuff.”
The capacity to switch off from the sport can be a good thing.
Ayton has already taken part in more than 300 fights across various disciplines but she is still a teenager. If things progress the way she and her promoters, Matchroom, hope, Ayton will quickly become a major player in female boxing and demands and expectations will rise accordingly. For the time being, it is important she continues to enjoy what she is doing.
Ayton fights with a natural aggression but good fundamentals. Her right hand comes out faster and straighter than some fighters who have spent years trying to perfect their craft, and she also has proven that she can be a ruthless finisher.
Ayton may have been fighting since she was six years old, but her style still has a raw, instinctive feel to it.
“And then one day, I just started training hard like I'm doing now, just constantly training.
“I feel like hard work and talent is unstoppable because no one's ever beat me yet.
“I hate losing. I never lost in sports days or anything.”